"Where's that warrant now, you f------ n-----?": Denver Police Won't Be Charged In 2009 Beating of Black College Student

From [HERE] and [MORE] Three white Denver Police officers who beat a Black college student during a traffic stop in 2009, will not be charged with any civil rights violations.

Alexander Landau, now 23, told The Denver Post that representatives from the FBI called him on Friday night to inform him that they didn't believe they had enough evidence to charged the officers with a federal crime.

Landau's case brought about one of the largest police brutality settlements in Denver history, totaling $795,000 in 2011. It also brought about community outrage, when photos of Landau's bloody face surfaced after the incident.

The original lawsuit accused the officers of stopping Landau, 19, after midnight on Jan. 15, 2009, for making an illegal turn, then calling him "nigger" and beating his face and head with their fists, a radio and a metal flashlight until he was unconscious.

Landau, a student at Community College of Denver, was treated at the hospital for a broken nose, brain bleeding, a concussion, a hemorrhage in his right eye and head lacerations that required several dozen stitches.

Landau was driving with fellow student Addison Hunold as a passenger about 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 15, 2009, when Nixon pulled him over for an illegal left turn, the lawsuit said. Landau did not have his license with him, but he gave Nixon his identifying information so the officer could look up his license. (Apparently then theywere asked to exit the vehicle for no valid reason). Nixon patted down both men and found marijuana on passenger Hunold. The officer then searched the interior of the car. Then Murr and Middleton arrived.

The conflict erupted when Officer Nixon moved to search the trunk.  Landau, the driver, asked if police had a search warrant as he "stepped toward the officers with his hands deferentially raised in the air, showing that he was not a threat. Murr grabbed Landau's left arm and Middleton clasped his right arm, the lawsuit said. "Nixon then punched the restrained (man) in the face" and Landau fell to the ground.

To provide cover for the "unprovoked attack," the lawsuit claimed, Murr falsely yelled: "He's going for the gun." Landau shouted, "No, I'm not!" the lawsuit said. The cops began pummeling Landau first with their fists, then with a police radio and a metal flashlight. Additional officers arriving from the police station a few blocks away and surrounding the scene. Some of the reinforcements joining in the fracas, others standing and watching. 

In police reports, the three officers said they were unable to subdue the 5-foot-8-inch, 155-pound teenager. At one point, the lawsuit said, Murr put his revolver to Landau's head and threatened to shoot him. Landau lost consciousness and awoke lying in a pool of his own blood, the lawsuit said. "Where's that warrant now, you f------- n-----?" a male officer asked, according to the lawsuit.

While the officers described Landau's uncontrollable "flailing and fighting," all three officers named in the lawsuit reported they had "no injury" in their Use of Force reports, the lawsuit said.

Paramedics called about 20 minutes after the traffic stop reported finding a handcuffed Landau "lying prone on curbside," "bleeding from the head, hematoma" with lacerations and in "acute distress," the lawsuit said.

After the Justice Department's conclusion however, Denver Police Protective Association President Nick Rogers told The Denver Post that the decision not to press federal charges had been appropriate.